Aaron Blunck parlays monster doublecorks into a first-place finish in the freeskiing halfpipe final Friday night at the Copper Mountain Grand Prix. It was the first victory in a major event for the 17-year-old from Crested Butte. Saturday night, the snowboarders will battle in the halfpipe, and Sunday will host skiers and snowboarders on the slopestyle course.

COPPER MOUNTAIN — After two days of intensive qualifiers, the Copper Mountain Grand Prix on Friday saw fireworks in the halfpipe, as a dozen skiers from six countries pushed to lock down their ticket to the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Colorado’s high-flying freeskiers dominated, with Telluride’s Gus Kenworthy leading the charge into the finals contest, followed by three of his Colorado pals: Lyman Currier, Aaron Blunck and Alex Ferreira.

Blunck’s monster double-corks earned him 92 points and the 17-year-old’s first victory in a major event. Frenchman Kevin Rolland took second and Kenworthy finished third.

Of the 12 women skiers from seven countries competing in the halfpipe Friday night, five were Americans, led by Angeli VanLaanen, Devin Logan and Maddie Bowman.

U.S. freeskiier Brita Sigourney won the contest, followed by Bowman, who won last weekend’s Dew Tour. French veteran Marie Martinod won third.

Halfpipe snowboard finals Saturday. Greg Bretz on Wednesday qualified first for Saturday night’s Copper Grand Prix snowboard halfpipe finals with a 94-point run, continuing his momentum from last weekend’s win at the Breckenridge Dew Tour. (Halfpipe boss Shaun White sat out Copper’s pipe contest to concentrate on slopestyle.) Of the 16 snowboarders from six countries in Saturday night’s halfpipe contest, nine are Americans, including Olympic favorites Scotty Lago, Louie Vito and Danny Davis as well as rookie Taylor Gold of Steamboat Springs.

Kelly Clark, the winningest halfpipe snowboarder of all time, qualified at the top of the eight-women roster for Saturday’s finals with a huge 96-point run, followed by Steamboat’s Arielle Gold and Aspen’s Gretchen Bleiler.

Slopestyle set for finals. Friday’s slopestyle course saw 15-year-old rookie Maggie Voisin of Montana spin her way into the top qualifying position for Saturday afternoon’s slopestyle finals.

Jason Blevins covers tourism, mountain business, skiing and outdoor adventure sports for both the business and sports sections at The Denver Post, which he joined in 1997. He skis, pedals, paddles and occasionally boogies in the hills and is just as inspired by the lively entrepreneurial spirit that permeates Colorado's high country communities as he is by the views.

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